Developing the Nomological Network of Perceived Corporate Affinity for Technology: A Three Essay Dissertation

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University of South Florida University of South Florida

Scholar Commons

Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School

12-7-2009

Developing the Nomological Network of Perceived Corporate

Affinity for Technology: A Three Essay Dissertation

David Earl Fleming

University of South Florida

Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons

Scholar Commons Citation Scholar Commons Citation

Fleming, David Earl, "Developing the Nomological Network of Perceived Corporate Affinity for Technology: A Three Essay Dissertation" (2009). Graduate Theses and Dissertations.

https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/1630

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Developing the Nomological Network of Perceived Corporate Affinity for Technology: A Three Essay Dissertation

by

David Earl Fleming

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy Department of Marketing

College of Business University of South Florida

Major Professor: Paul Solomon, Ph.D. Andrew Artis, Ph.D.

Richard Plank, Ph.D. Michael Coovert, Ph.D.

Sajeev Varki, Ph.D. James Hensel, Ph.D.

Date of Approval: December 7, 2009

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Dedication

This dissertation is dedicated to my family. Without their support, none of this would have been possible. To my wife, Sarah, thank you for the sacrifices you have made and your patience throughout this journey. To my parents, I thank you for always being supportive and willing to do whatever you could to make this journey easier. Finally, this dissertation is dedicated to my children, Ryan and Rachael, for whose future all of this was done.

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Acknowledgments

I am indebted to all of the people who had a hand in me getting through the Ph.D. process. I am thankful to Dr. Paul Solomon, my dissertation chair, for paving the way for me through the program so that I could attain my desired goals. I thank Dr. Andrew Artis for serving as a mentor and sounding board for the last seven years; your advice and feedback helped me avoid and overcome many obstacles. Also, I would like to acknowledge my original committee members, Dr. Richard Plank and Dr. Michael Coovert, for the effort and time they spent helping me complete this dissertation and whose expertise improved the quality of the research. I also want to thank Dr. Sajeev Varki and Dr. James Hensel for agreeing to serve on my dissertation committee when the need arose. I would like to acknowledge Wendy for making sure I always got everything in on time. Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Eric Harris for serving as a friend, mentor, and cheerleader, and for encouraging me to go beyond my comfort zone and get a Ph.D.

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Table of Contents

List of Tables v

List of Figures vi

List of Appendices vii

Abstract viii

Chapter 1 1

Introduction 1

Research on Technology in Services and Sales 2

Personification of Firms 11

Importance of Perceived Attitudes 12

Employee Learning 13 Purpose 14 Research Questions 14 Theory 15 Contributions to Marketing 18 Academicians 18 Managers 20 Organization of Dissertation 22 References 24

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Chapter 2 How Managers Influence Employee Perceptions of the Firm 31 Introduction 31 Literature Review Communications Theory 33 Service Marketing 36 Technology Perceptions 38 Model Development 41 Methods 47 Sample 47 Measures 50 Analysis/Findings 50 Discussion 57 Implications 57 Academic 57 Managerial 59 References 61

Chapter 3 Employee Perceptions and Its Effect on Their Use of Self-Directed Learning 67

Introduction 67

Literature Review 69

Self-Directed Learning 69

Affinity for Technology 72

Model Development 74

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Sample 78

Measures 79

Analysis/Findings 80

Confirmatory Factor Analysis 80

Structural Equation Models 83

Nested Regression Models 87

Discussion 91

Contributions 93

Future Research 95

References 96

Chapter 4 The Effect of Customer Perceptions on Service Outcomes 102

Introduction 102

Literature Review 104

Personification of Firms 104

Individual Perceptions of Technology 105

Self-Congruity 109 Service Experience 110 Service Outcomes 112 Model Development 113 Methods 118 Sample 118 Measures 120 Analysis 121

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Findings 123

Confirmatory Factor Analysis 123

Structural Equations Models 127

Parcel Models 130 Nested Regressions 132 Discussion/Limitations 134 Implications 136 Academic 136 Managerial 137 References 139

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List of Tables

Table 1. Technology in the Services Literature 4

Table 2. Technology in the Sales Literature 8

Table 3. Customer Contact Employee Demographics 49

Table 4. Manager Demographics 49

Table 5. Confirmatory Factor Analysis Results 52

Table 6. Structural Equation Model Result 55

Table 7. Nested Regression Results 56

Table 8. Demographics 79

Table 10. Structural Equation Model Results 85

Table 11. Nested Regression Results 90

Table12. Hypothesis Results 93

Table 13. Demographics 119

Table 15. Structural Equation Model Results 129

Table 16. Parcel Model Results 132

Table 17. Nested Regression Findings 133

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List of Figures

Figure 1. Schramm Model of Communication 35

Figure 2. Conceptual Model 46

Figure 3. Hypothesized Model 47

Figure 4. Empirical Model 78

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List of Appendices

Appendix 1. Manager and Customer Contact Employee Survey Items 65

Appendix 2. Survey Items 100

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Developing the Nomological Network of Perceived Corporate Affinity for Technology: A Three Essay Dissertation

David E. Fleming ABSTRACT

Technology is changing the face of both the sales and service domains. Honebein and Cammarano (2006) note that properly implemented self-service technologies serve dual purposes of decreasing firm overhead costs, while simultaneously engaging the customer in a way encourages the co-create of value for both parties. To get these

benefits stakeholders must be willing to adopt and use the technologies that are available. Traditionally, this has lead to the research question “How do firms do this?” However, according to a recent article by Woodall, Colby and Parasuraman (2007), consumers are now demanding more technology-based options and becoming more technologically savvy. This changes the research focus to answering the question “How can firms be seen as able to deliver technology-based options effectively, efficiently and securely to meet the demands of this new “e-service” model?” The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the role of stakeholder perceptions of firm attitudes toward technology in answering this question. Perceived corporate affinity for technology (Fleming and Artis forthcoming) is a measure stakeholder perception of a firm‟s general positive affect toward technology, and was developed and validated in sales and services contexts using samples of both employees and customers.

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The studies of this dissertation test potential antecedents, consequence and boundary conditions of stakeholder perceptions of corporate affinity for technology in three key groups, namely managers, employees and customers. To accomplish this purpose, the following research questions, one for each key group of stakeholders, were proposed for this study:

1) Do manager perceptions of corporate affinity for technology influence employee perceptions of corporate affinity for technology?

2) Do employee perceptions of corporate affinity for technology influence employee learning behavior?

3) Do customer perceptions of corporate affinity for technology influence how they perceive the quality of the service delivery and their rating of other key customer service outcomes?

Separate conceptual models were developed and tested to answer these questions.

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Chapter One Introduction

Technology is changing the face of both the sales and service arenas. For

instance, according to the Insurance Information Institute‟s Financial Services Fact Book (2009), there are over 406,000 ATMs in the United States, and these ATMs were used almost 14.7 billion transactions. This is an incredible usage of an impersonal self-service technology considering the importance placed on the service provider in past academic studies (Harris and Fleming, 2005). ATMs are just one example of how technologies have and are continuing to radically change how firms and customers interact: from providing faster and more precise service delivery, to providing service providers and salespeople with more up to date information to share with their clients, to allowing customers to complete transactions at convenient times and locations without the physical presence of a service provider. Honebein and Cammarano (2006) note that properly implemented technologies serve a dual purpose. The first is to decrease the overhead costs for the firm through a reduction in employees or increased service delivery efficiency and accuracy, while the second purpose is to engage the customer in such a way that they “co-create” value and get more out of their interactions with the firm.

In order for firms to reap these benefits, however, stakeholders (both firm employees and customers) must use the technologies that are available. This has traditionally lead researchers to examine the technology specific factors (Curran and

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Meuter, 2005; 2007) and individual level human characteristics (Parasuraman, 2000) that influence technology adoption, and more importantly, use by stakeholders. However, a recent article by Woodall, Colby, and Parasuraman (2007) notes that customers are becoming more technologically savvy and are demanding more technology based service experiences. They note that this change in consumer demands is resulting in a new “e-service” model that is driven by the increase in portability, mobility. A recent call for papers in the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management highlights the need for research on the impact of technology on the Company-Customer, Salesperson-Customer, and Sales Force-Company interfaces of the selling process, especially on the B2C side of sales; which also highlights the need for research on the role of the firm when it comes to technology perceptions.

Research on technology in services and sales. The marketing literature on technology focuses mainly on two key facets that influence its use, namely personal factors and aspects of the technology itself. There have been many studies of personal factors, such as attitudes and traits that influence individuals‟ adoption or use of technology. Examples of this include Goldman, Platt and Kaplan‟s (1973) work on the dimensions of attitudes toward technology, the work of Heinssen, Glass and Knight (1987) on computer anxiety, Parasuraman‟s (2000) development of the Technology Readiness Index, a scale designed to measure the willingness of a person to adopt new technologies, and Edison and Geissler‟s (2003) construct of affinity for technology to measure “positive affect toward technology” (p. 140). On the other side are the studies that look at specific traits of the technology that influence whether it will be adopted or used, such as the work of Curran and Meuter (2005; 2007). As can be seen in Tables 1 and 2 most of the research on

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technology in the services and sales domains also examines these two types of factors as well. The focus on these facets is not surprising given that the traditional research question guiding this research is “how does the firm get customers to adopt or use the technology the firm is offering?” The rest of the research in these areas examines how technology impacts firm performance either through improving employee effectiveness or positive customer outcomes. However, the recent work by Woodall, Colby, and Parasuraman (2007) notes that service customers are technologically savvy and predict that the services domain will experience a significant shift as customers demand more technology-based aspects of the service experience into what they term “e-services”. Now the challenge facing firms is finding ways to show customers that the firm is capable of effectively, efficiently and securely delivering on this new generation of services. A recent call for papers in the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management highlights the need for research on the impact of technology on the

Company-Customer, Salesperson-Customer, and Sales Force-Company interfaces of the selling process, especially on the B2C side of sales. Again this shows the need for research on the role of the firm when it comes to technology.

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Table 1. Technology in the Services Literature

Author(s) Date Type Sample Key Findings

Bigné, Aldás

& Andreu 2008 Quantitative Managers

Relationship intensity and environmental factors enhance e-business adoption. E-communication positively influences e-procurement in supply chains.

Vlachos &

Vrechopoulos 2008 Quantitative Customers

Content quality, contextual quality, device quality, connection quality and privacy concerns positively influence service quality perceptions. Service quality, value and satisfaction have direct effects on behavioral intentions to use the technology.

Forbes 2008 Quantitative Customers

The service failures experienced by non-internet self-service technology (sst) customers are different than those experienced by customers in

traditional retail and e-tail settings, and the recovery strategies employed by companies using internet ssts are also. Post-recovery switching by non-internet SST customers can be high even with a satisfying experience. Timmor & Rymon 2007 Quantitative & Qualitative Students

The participants' perception of outcomes, ease of use and technology orientation; the consistency of the new service delivery process with the old; and the perceived image of the provider influence behavioral intentions regarding a new, technology-based learning format.

Jayasimha &

Nargundkar 2007 Conceptual N/A

Self-service technologies are more likely to be used by customers that have certain demographic profiles, and it is unlikely that all firms have large enough customer bases of these desirable profiles to make implementing these technologies worthwhile. Thus, understanding and overcoming the hindrances to adoption would help these firms.

Ghodeswar &

Vaidyanathan 2007 Conceptual N/A

A framework of organization buying behavior of innovative medical technology, and proposes that it is influenced by organizational factors, organizational processes, individual characteristics, group factors, technological factors and the external environment.

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Author(s) Date Type Sample Key Findings Hackman, Gundergan, Wang & Daniel 2006 Quantitative Customers

Online service value is influenced by the online service quality and related sacrifice. Online service satisfaction is influenced by online service value and online service quality. Behavioral intentions to use online services are directly influenced by online service quality, online service value and online service satisfaction.

Walker &

Johnson 2006 Quantitative Customers

Customer willingness to use the internet and telephone for financial and shopping services is impacted by the individual's belief in their personal capacity/ability to engage with the service system, perceived risks, relative advantages, and extent to which contact with service personnel is preferred or seen as necessary.

Harris, Mohr

& Bernhardt 2006 Quantitative Customers

Online participants blamed themselves more for service failures, and expect less failure recovery than offline consumers.

Matthing, Kristensson, Gustafsson &. Parasuraman 2006 Quantiative & Qualitative Customers

Technology readiness can be used as a tool for identifying customers who are innovative in terms of attitudes and behaviors. Customers that score highly on technology readiness are able to develop highly creative new service ideas in terms of both quantity and quality.

Gerrard, Cunningham

& Devlin

2006 Qualitative Customers

The key factors identified as reasons that customers do not use internet banking are perceptions about risk, the need for it, lacking knowledge, inertia, inaccessibility, lack of a human touch, pricing and fatigue with information technology.

Forbes, Kelley

& Hoffman 2005 Quantitative Customers

E-tail customers experience different service failures than customers in traditional retail settings, e-tail firms employ different recovery strategies than traditional retail firms, and post-recovery switching by e-tail customers can be high even with a satisfying experience.

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Author(s) Date Type Sample Key Findings Curran &

Meuter 2005 Quantitative Customers

Many factors need to be considered when introducing technologies into service encounters, and these factors may differ depending on the technology and its stage of adoption.

Bansal, McDougall,

Dikolli & Sedatole

2004 Quantitative Customers

Models that examine the antecedents and consequences of satisfaction in offline settings applicable to online settings. Web site characteristics impact behavioral outcomes. Web site customer service only influenced

retention/referral outcomes. Web site customer service may be necessary but not sufficient to attaining positive outcomes in online settings. Sweeney &

Lapp 2004 Quantitative Customers

The types of incidents that lead to perceptions of high service quality are active marketing-oriented aspects, while the incidents leading to

perceptions of low service quality tend to be technically oriented. Gummerus,

Liljander, Pura & van Riel

Customer loyalty to contend-based service websites is based on satisfaction, but satisfaction is influenced by trust. Need fulfillment,

responsiveness, security and technical functionality of the site impact trust. Rexha,

Kingshott & Aw

The adoption of electronic banking is directly impacted by trust, and customer satisfaction indirectly influenced the adoption of electronic banking through its impact on trust.

Drennan & McColl-Kennedy

The Internet significantly influences the perceived performance of service firms, but the aspects of internet use that influences this relationship varies by the type of service offered. Retail Services - transactional functions are positively related to increases in perceived performance. Professional Health Service - the ability to search for information on products/services is positively related to perceived performance.

Lee & Allaway 2002 Quantitative Students

The adoption process of self-service technologies is improved when potential customers are provided with high predictability, high controllability and high outcome desirability.

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Thornton &

White 2001 Quantitative Customers

Customer orientations influence which of financial distribution channels customers use. In-depth analysis of a firm‟s profitable customers, in terms of their orientations, could potentially reduce the operating costs of offering multiple financial distribution channels by allowing the firm to specialize in the channels that these high-value desire.

Fisk 1999 Conceptual N/A

Customer desires for technology are something to which service marketers must pay attention. An over emphasis on technology and ignorance of customer needs can be disastrous. "... technology is merely the means to the end and not the end in itself."

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Table 2. Technology in the Sales Literature

Rapp, Agnihotri &

Forbes 2008 Quantitative

Salespeople, Managers

SFA usage directly impacts effort and reduces the number of hours worked. CRM use positively impacts adaptive selling, but experience moderates this relationship.

Moutot & Bascoul 2008 Quantitative Salespeople SFA implementation in CRM creates a mostly negative effect of SFA reporting but positive effects of SFA call planning and product configuration

Hunter & Perreault 2006 Quantitative Salespeople

A salesperson's technology orientation directly impacts internal role

performance, and it affects performance with customers through a mediated path via the effective use of information and smart selling (i.e. planning and adaptive selling).

Ko & Dennis 2004 Quantitative Salespeople SFA positively influences sales performance, but expertise moderates this relationship.

Jones, Sundaram &

Chin 2002 Quantitative Salespeople

Perceived usefulness, attitude toward the new system, and compatibility were found to be antecedents of intention to use new SFA systems prior to

implementation. Personal innovativeness, attitude toward the new system, and facilitating conditions are antecedents to the use of new SFA systems.

Widmier, Jackson

& McCabe 2002 Quantitative Salespeople

Most firms are using some form of SFA, usually in the form of contact

management, generating sales proposals, creating presentations, sales calls and expense reporting and less frequently in sales route planning and automated sales plans Kennedy & Deeter-Schmelz 2001 Qualitative, Quantitative Industrial Buyers

Antecedents to buyer use of the internet include self-perceived innovativeness, convenience seeking, pressure to reduce costs, influence of others in the firm, and supplier support.

Shoemaker 2001 Conceptual N/A Technology should serve the role of integrating knowledge management, transaction and customer relationship processes.

Erffmeyer &

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Rivers & Dart 1999 Quantitative Managers Several key antecedents to the acquisition of SFA technology were identified, but very few of these were related to the benefits of SFA adoption.

Swenson &

Parrella 1992 Qualitative

Managers, Salespeople

Core reasons for adopting new technology: (1) Customer orientation: to better serve customers, and (2) productivity: new technology produces sales gains that cover its cost.

Wedell &

Hempeck 1987 Conceptual N/A

Six key factors for successful SFA programs: remote access, e-mail, word processing & spreadsheet software, time management software, cellular telephones, and adequate training of staff. Potential hard & soft-dollar savings from the use of SFA.

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In order to examine this phenomenon, the author draws on the recent work of Fleming and Artis (forthcoming). Their work extended the idea of affinity for technology by developing and validating a measure of customer and employee perceptions of

corporate affinity for technology. This construct is defined as “the perception individuals have of the affect held by the firm toward technology in general” (p. 8). This construct places emphasis on the employee or customer‟s impression of how the firm relates to technology, which is very different from how the individual feels about technology. This construct was developed and validated in pretests utilizing both qualitative and

quantitative methods based on well-respected scale development procedures (Churchill, 1979; Jarvis, MacKenzie, and Podsakoff, 2003; MacKenzie, 2003; Rossiter, 2003; Segars, 1997). According to their qualitative study used to the measure of this construct, these perceptions of corporate affinity for technology can be derived from many different points of contact with an organization such as advertisements, encounters with employees and contact with managers. Another interesting finding was that customers stated that they learned about the firm‟s relationship with technology via interactions with boundary spanning employees, while the employees thought that mass media was more informative for customer. This highlights the fact that a gap exists between what customers and employees believe is the role of the boundary spanners in sharing information about technology. The quantitative studies utilized exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and found that the same eight item solution created the best factor structure for both customers and employees. Correlational analyses found that from a customer perspective this construct is related to both personal affinity for technology (r=.34) and perceptions of service performance (r=.69). Thus, this work proposes that stakeholder

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perceptions of corporate attitudes may also play a role not only in stakeholder use and adoption of technology, but key outcome perceptions and behaviors. While their work did not test the relationships between employee perceptions of corporate affinity for

technology and other variables, the customer findings indicate that how an individual perceives a firm relating to technology does impact how they perceive the firm in other areas. This is important in the service setting because what the customer contact

employee thinks the firm as values will influence both the methods they use and how they communicate with current and prospective clients. However, no work has yet been done to develop a nomological network for this construct.

Personification of firms. The consumer behavior literature frequently contains research based on the notion that consumers instill innate objects with human

characteristics, and many of these articles utilize measures of human traits to evaluate firms or brands. Granted, it is impossible for an inanimate object such as a company to actually possess an attitude towards anything. However, people do tend to assign human traits to firms through a process of anthropomorphism (Brown, 1991). Brown also states that giving human characteristics to inanimate objects seems to be a universal occurrence and that the personification of firms allows people to anthropomorphize objects in order to better express their evaluative judgments. McGill (2000) notes that people place brands in to natural categories just as they do other people and animals. According to d‟Astous and Levesque (2003, pp. 456) “…understanding how consumers perceive products, brands, stores and other commercial objects in terms of human attributes is likely to be useful for the elaboration and implementation of marketing actions.” For

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instance, the literature on brand personality (Aaker, 1997) relies on the notion that customers assign personality traits to firms.

The importance of perceived attitudes. To date, most studies that apply human qualities to firms only assume that customers imbue them with human traits. For

example, studies that draw on the self-congruity literature (Sirgy, 1980; Sirgy and Samli, 1985) are interested in the extent to which the traits perceived in the product or store are congruous with either ideal, social or actual self of the purchaser. Other studies (Ekinci and Riley, 2003; Harris and Fleming, 2005) have shown that congruity between the customer‟s personality and the perceived personality of the firm is a key factor in the formation of perceptions of service quality and the likelihood of positive service outcomes such as satisfaction and word-of-mouth intentions. As of yet, no studies have examined whether the congruity of attitudes possessed by the customer with those they perceive the company to hold towards either objects or ideas are as important to key outcomes as the traits that have been studied. This is important as customers develop attitudes and commitments towards causes (e.g., the environment) and objects (i.e. technology) and these customer attitudes influence company communication efforts and actions. For instance, the increase in consumer concerns about the environment

influenced Wal-Mart to spend $500 million on “green” initiatives to project the image that the company is concern about the issue as well (Gunther, 2006). Additionally, understanding how employees form perceptions of firm attitudes towards technology is vital. According to the qualitative pretest by the author most customers learn about the firm‟s attitude as it relates to technology from their interactions with employees. Thus, it is important to examine whether the activities on the part of firms to generate these

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perceived attitudes among customers and employees is a productive investment or a waste of valuable company resources.

Employee learning. The ability of salespeople to learn it is at the heart of many key concepts in the sales literature because of the growing need for salespeople to be able to adapt to rapidly changing competitive environments, customer needs and regulatory and firm requirements (Jones, Brown, Zoltners, and Weitz 2005; Marshall, Moncrief, and Lassk, 1999). Most sales force research on learning has focused on formal training (Lupton, Weiss, and Peterson 1999; Cron, Marshall, Singh, Spiro, and Sujan, 2005) or learning through experience (Turley and Geiger, 2006; Sujan, Weitz, and Kumar, 1994). While these are important ways for salespeople and service personnel to learn, they many not be efficient or effective enough to allow them to keep pace in today‟s rapidly

changing marketplace. Recently, the concept of self-directed learning been incorporated into the sales area (Hurley, 2002; Artis and Harris, 2007) from the adult education field. Self-directed learning provides a new insight into salesperson learning by looking at how employees can be responsible for their own learning, implementing that learning to reach their personal and corporate goals and evaluating the outcomes of their learning

(Knowles, 1975). Artis and Harris‟ (2007) conceptual model identifies antecedents, moderators, mediators and outcomes of the use of SDLPs by salespeople. Through their detailed review of the self-directed learning literature they propose four antecedents, two moderators and one mediator of the use of SDLPs by salespeople. The four individual characteristics they identified as antecedents are learner self-directedness, confidence in self-directed learning skills, contextual understanding and motivation to learn. The two moderators they propose are environmental turbulence and organizational learning

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climate. The moderating variable proposed is willingness to use SDLPs. This model can also be applied to service personnel as both salespeople and service providers are

customer contact boundary spanners who fulfill similar roles (Singh and Rhodes, 1991). However, this area of research has not examined the role of technology in employee use of self-directed learning.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is twofold. The first is to determine if the efforts that corporate executives engage in to create perceptions of firm attitudes actually influence employee and customer behaviors and outcomes. This finding will determine if these efforts are an investment in the firm‟s value or a waste of firm resources. Also this finding will help to guide firms as they attempt to be seen as able to provide the new “e-service” model described by Woodall, Colby and Parasuraman (2007) and as they attempt to understand how technology impacts the various sales process interfaces. The second purpose of this paper is to develop the nomological network for the construct of perceived corporate affinity for technology. This work is important as it tests the validity of this new construct beyond the face, content and convergent validities found in the pretest. Also the development and testing of a nomological network shows the importance of the construct in terms of the strength of its influence on key outcome measures.

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1) Do manager perceptions of corporate affinity for technology influence employee perceptions of corporate affinity for technology?

2) Do employee perceptions of corporate affinity for technology influence employee learning behavior?

3) Do customer perceptions of corporate affinity for technology influence how they perceive the quality of the service delivery and their rating of other key customer service outcomes?

Theory

Given the differing nature of the three key stakeholder groups that serve as the foci of these studies, and the disparate types of variables included in each investigation; it was necessary to draw on a wide array of theories in developing the various parts of the nomological network. To this end, each study and the theories applied in them will be discussed separately.

In examining the role that frontline managers play in employees‟ perceptions of corporate affinity for technology, the core theoretical basis is the Schramm model of communication (Schramm 1954). The Schramm model draws heavily on the Shannon-Weaver “mathematical model” of communication (Shannon 1948), which contains seven key parts. Six of these components are necessary for communication and one creates the entropy in communications that Shannon sought to understand from a probabilistic sense. The six parts necessary for communication are 1) an information source, 2) a message, 3) a transmitter, 4) a signal, 5) a receiver and 6) a destination. The seventh key component of a communication system that they identify is noise and is not necessary; in fact it is a

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detriment to the effective transmission of the signal between the transmitter and receiver. Schramm (1954) added the components of a feedback loop from the destination to the information source and a shared field of experience between the source and destination. This model serves as a basic framework for how manager perceptions of corporate affinity for technology shape employee perceptions of corporate affinity for technology. In addition to this model, the moderating effects of examined noise factors are explained via two additional theoretical bases. The first is implicit attitudes (Fazio, Jackson, Dunton, and Williams, 1995); these studies have found if the participant‟s belief about the target stimulus is incongruous with their own belief about the prime they have received, then it interferes with their ability to communicate the category of the target, and similar results have been found in a marketing context. This is the basis for the moderating effect of manager personal affinity for technology on the central relationship between manager perceptions of corporate affinity for technology and employee

perceptions of corporate affinity for technology. The second theoretical basis for the noise components is the concept of selective attention. According to Triesman (1969), individuals are only able to process a small portion of the information they receive at any given time and therefore must choose what information to which they are going to attend. This theory is used to explain how employee personal affinity for technology moderates the relationship between manager perceptions of corporate affinity for technology and employee perceptions of corporate affinity for technology.

The core theoretical basis of the study examining how employee perceptions of corporate affinity for technology influence their learning behaviors comes from the work of Artis and Harris (2007). Artis and Harris (2007) extended the notion of self-directed

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learning projects (SDLPs) into the sales area by providing a conceptual model of the antecedents, moderators, mediators and outcomes of the use of SDLPs by salespeople. Through their detailed review of the self-directed learning literature they propose four antecedents, two moderators and one mediator of the use of SDLPs by salespeople. The four individual characteristics they identified as antecedents are learner self-directedness, confidence in self-directed learning skills, contextual understanding and motivation to learn. The two moderators they propose are environmental turbulence and organizational learning climate. The moderating variable proposed is willingness to use SDLPs. This model serves as a basic framework that guides the conceptualization of how employee perceptions of corporate affinity for technology influence the use of SDLPs by

employees. A secondary theoretical underpinning for this study is social exchange theory (Thibaut and Kelley, 1959), which states that relationships involve a mutual give and take between the two parties involved. In this case, if the employee believes that the firm provides something for the employee, then the employee will reciprocate to the firm by taking advantage of this opportunity. In this case, if the firm shows an affinity for technology, then the employee will utilize the available technology for the betterment of the firm (i.e. learning).

The core theory underlying the third study of how customer perceptions of firm affinity for technology influences service performance perceptions is through its role as a signal to customers. Signaling theory is based in the economic study of asymmetric information conditions between buyers and sellers (Spence, 1974). It is based on the notion that sellers know their true product quality prior to the sale, but buyers do not; especially if these products contain experience properties (such as services), which can

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only be evaluated during consumption (Nelson, 1970). One way firms can overcome this information gap is to send signals about their service quality. A variety of signals have been tested such as price (Milgrom and Roberts, 1986), advertising (Ippolito, 1990), and warranties (Boulding and Kirmani, 1993). A second major theory in this study is the notion of self-congruity (Sirgy, 1982). The key self-concepts he focuses on are the “ideal self,” the “actual self” and the “social self”. In his work, the ideal self is defined as how an individual would like to see himself or herself; the actual self is defined as how an individual views himself or herself; and the social self is defined as how an individual would like others to see him or her. His work revealed that consumers were more likely to select products that possess traits that are consistent with positive aspects their self-image. He also showed that this congruity has a strong influence on purchase motivation. This theory is used to explain how customer personal affinity for technology serves as a moderator of the relationship between customer perceptions of firm affinity for

technology and service performance perceptions.

Contributions to Marketing

As with the theory section, the contributions section will be broken down by study due to the different stakeholder groups involved in each. Also, the implications of this study for academicians and managers will be examined separately.

Academicians. The first study has several important implications for

academicians. The first is that this paper explores the role of technology in the employee-firm interface. This study shows the importance of managers in communicating the employee-firm‟s attitude toward technology to employees who then pass this information to customers.

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The other major academic implication of this paper comes from the application of a well-known theory to a new area of study. This paper applies the communication model of Schramm (1954) to show how manager perceptions of the firm‟s attitudes are shared with employees to form customer contact employee perceptions of firm attitudes. This is important as it draws in a model from another area into the study of services marketing and serves as a theoretical reference point for future research into the how internal marketing communication occurs and the potential threats to the clear transmission of messages between the firm and customer.

The second study contributes to the literature by developing and testing a model that extends the current thinking on what drives boundary spanning employee use of directed learning projects. The model shows that getting employees to engage in self-directed learning projects is both a selection issue and an internal marketing issue. On the selection side, this model shows the importance of hiring and retaining those customer contact employees who have a high affinity for technology as they are more likely to engage in the use of self-directed learning projects that benefit the firm in addition to being more open to the increasingly important technological advances. On the internal marketing side, this model shows the importance of communicating the firm‟s attitude toward technology to help increase employee use of SDLPs.

The findings of the third study have several important implications for

academicians. The first is that this paper introduces a new class of potential antecedents to the formation of customer perceptions of service outcomes. Specifically, this paper shows that perceived firm attitudes my influence customer perceptions of service quality, and through service quality perceptions indirectly influence other key outcomes of

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interest to the firm. The second key finding is that the congruity between individual attitude and perceived firm attitude determines strength of this antecedent relationship. While this may not seem like a big contribution given the extensive literature on

congruity theory, it is actually very important as it shows that the influence of congruity extends beyond the match of customer and firm traits (usually personality traits).

Finally, each study contributes to the process of developing the nomological network for the new construct of perceived corporate affinity for technology. Given that this is a new construct with very little empirical research, it is important that it be

thoroughly tested in order to assess its convergent, discriminant and construct validity. It is also important to test this new construct to determine what, if any, affects it will have on the current knowledge base of the field.

Managers. The first study in this dissertation contains several benefits for managers. The first benefit is that this study shows the importance of managers in the process of sharing information with employees. However, this information is not just what the firm expects from employees in terms of performance and activities as shown in past studies, but also information about the attitudes that the firm has towards objects or causes. This is vital as firm attitudes towards causes, such as the environment, are believed to be vital to increasing patronage. Additionally, firm attitudes towards

technology, as communicated by frontline employees, should influence customer usage of technological offerings by the firm. As noted by Honebein and Cammarano (2006) properly implemented technologies can be a cost savings for firms as well as a means to cocreate value by involving customers, which should result in more satisfied and loyal patrons. Another of the key benefits of this study for managers is that it shows that the

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role of managers in sharing information with employees about the firm goes beyond just telling employees what the company expects. Specifically it identifies that how the manager personally feels about the message they are sending affects the signal that the employee receives and in turn the message that is passed on to the customer. Thus, managers must be cognizant of their own feelings in regards to technology (or other objects/causes) when sharing firm attitudes about technology (or other objects/causes) with their customer contact employees and be mindful of the impact of their personal attitudes on the message they are delivering. A final key benefit of this study for managers is that it highlights the importance of employee personal attitudes on the reception of communications about firm attitudes are received. This is relevant, as according to the internal marketing literature, these perceptions of the firm are then transmitted to the customer and can influence service delivery perceptions (e.g. Lai 2006). Thus, managers need to be aware of how their employees feel about technology as managers attempt to communicate the firm‟s relationship with technology to the

employee, and may need to spend more time communicating the message to those

employees whose personal attitudes are not inline with the message that the firm is trying to convey to customers.

From a manager‟s perspective, the second study offers two major contributions. First, the model shows how both individual and perceptions of firm level affinity for technology can improve employee profitability by improving their use of SDLPs that result in better knowledge, which translates into more sales. This study also shows how important personal affinity for technology and perceptions of corporate affinity for technology are in creating a competitive advantage. The extended knowledge base that

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employees develop through the use of voluntary and scanning SDLPs is a competitive advantage that is difficult for competitors to overcome or replicate because it is based on the employee‟s own understanding of what is needed to be successful.

For managers, the third study contains some important insights as well. First, the study shows the importance of customer perceptions of firm attitudes, in this case toward technology, but it could reasonably be extended to customer perceptions of firm attitudes toward objects, ideas or causes. This paper provides empirical evidence of the importance of customer perceptions of firm attitudes and links these perceptions to their impact on key outcomes that relate directly to customer attraction, retention and profitability. This provides managers with evidence to present to their shareholders in defense of their efforts to project certain attitudes to customers. A second benefit that this paper provides managers is that it shows the importance of knowing the target market‟s personal

attitudes as well because personal attitudes serve to enhance or limit the strength of relationship between customer perceptions of firm and outcomes. In the case of the firm‟s attitude toward technology, if the core markets of the firm do not have favorable personal attitudes toward technology, then the efforts to enhance their perceptions of the firm‟s affinity for technology are frivolous at best and harmful at worst.

Organization of the Dissertation

The rest of the dissertation is organized as follows. Each research question

mentioned previously is examined via a complete, journal ready style article. Each article contains and integrates the literature pertinent to the specific research question as well as the models that will be used to test these relationships. Each article also includes the

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methodology and measures to be used to test the models and a discussion of the implications of the study to both academicians and managers.

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Chapter Two: Developing the Nomological Network of Perceived Corporate Affinity For Technology:

Study 1 – How Managers Influence Employee Perceptions of the Firm

As technology becomes an ever more important part of the service sector and service delivery, it is increasingly imperative that firms understand how their customer contact employees develop perceptions of the firm‟s relationship with technology, as prior research has shown that employees share their perceptions of the firm with

customers. Other studies have found that, according to customers, employees are often a key source of information about the firm‟s relationship with technology. This article draws on communications theory and internal marketing literature to develop and test a model of the importance of managers in the formation of employee perceptions of firm affinity for technology.

Introduction

Technology has become a revolutionized the service experience for consumers. Woodall, Colby, and Parasuraman (2007) identified a new “e-services” model that combines the mobility, portability, personalization and collaboration aspects of new technology with demographic and lifestyle shifts. They predict that these “e-services” will be the shape of the future in the service industry. As noted by Honebein and Cammarano (2006), properly implemented self-service technologies serve a dual

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purpose. The first is to decrease the overhead costs for the firm through a reduction in employees, while the second purpose is to engage the customer in such a way that they “co-create” value for themselves. Because, as Woodall, Colby, and Parasuraman (2007) note, customers are becoming more technologically savvy, t he challenge facing firms is no longer getting customers to use the technology available; but rather it is to be seen as able to deliver on the new demands of the “e-services” model. A qualitative pretest of bank customers reported that most of the information customers got about the bank‟s relationship with and use of technology came from customer contact employees, while most employees thought customers learned about the technology use of the bank through advertisements and direct mailings. This finding suggests that it is important for

employees to understand their roll in sharing information with customers and that they have a proper perception of the firm and its relationship with technology so that this information can be passed on to customers. However, no study has examined the role managers play in how employees form their perceptions of the firm‟s affinity toward technology that is communicated to the customer.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the importance of managers in the formation of employee perceptions of the firm‟s affinity for technology. By drawing on communications theory and internal marketing literature, this paper will examine how a manager‟s perception of the firm‟s affinity for technology directly influences their

subordinates‟ perceptions of the firm‟s affinity for technology and how both manager and employee personal affinity for technology influence this relationship.

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Communications theory. In the study of communications various transmission models have been developed to explain how messages are sent and received. One of the best know of these models was developed by Claude Shannon (1948) which he called “A Mathematical Theory of Communication.” This work was later published with additions by Warren Weaver (Shannon and Weaver, 1963) as “The Mathematical Theory of

Communication” and has come to be known as the Shannon - Weaver model in the social sciences. This model was originally developed to explain problems in

telecommunications using probability theory. Schramm (1954) adapted their model to explain mass communication and it has since been adopted by marketing. For instance, several integrated marketing communication texts use a version of the Schramm model to explain the communications process involved in advertising and promotion (Belch and Belch, 2006; Solomon, Cornell, and Nizan, 2009). However, a similar application has not been used in the internal marketing communication literature.

The Shannon-Weaver (1963) model contains seven key parts, six of which are necessary for communication and one, which creates the entropy in communications that Shannon (1948) sought to understand from a probabilistic sense. The six parts necessary for communication are 1) an information source, 2) a message, 3) a transmitter, 4) a signal, 5) a receiver, and 6) a destination. According to Shannon (1948) an information source produces a message that is communicated to the receiving terminal to be passed along ultimately to the destination. The message is the information that the source wishes to share with the destination. The transmitter is responsible for encoding the message in such a way that it can be sent over the channel that carries the signal. The signal is the encoded form of the message that can be sent over the channel or medium of

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communication to the receiver. The receiver is responsible for decoding the signal and turning it into a message that can be understood by the destination. The destination is the person the message is targeted toward. The seventh key component of a communication system that they identify is noise and is not necessary; in fact it is a detriment to the effective transmission of the signal between the transmitter and receiver. Shannon (1948) defines noise as any interference that causes a difference between the signal sent by the transmitter and the signal obtained by the receiver. Schramm (1954) extended the

Shannon-Weaver (1963) model to make it less mathematical and more applicable to mass communication. The first part that he added was a feedback loop from the destination to the information source. He notes that this is a necessary component to allow the source to know that their message is being received by the destination and to adjust the message if it is not being properly received. The second component he added was the idea of a shared field of experience (such as meanings, beliefs, values or experiences) between the source and destination. He notes that if the parties involved in communication do not share some common understandings, then it is not possible for communication to occur. The relationships in the Schramm (1954) model are shown in Figure 1.

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Figure 1. Schramm Model of Communication

Source Field of Experience Destination Field of Experience

Message Transmitter Signal Receiver Message

Noise Information

Source

Destination Feedback

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Service marketing. Service marketing varies from the marketing of traditional goods because of the lack of a central tangible product and the importance of the customer contact employee (Harris and Fleming, 2005). One of the key aspects of successful services is the treatment of employees as internal customers. Internal

marketing is defined by Berry (1981) as the treatment of employees as internal customers of the firm who are consuming other internal products. This view stresses the need to meet these internal customers' needs so that they can achieve organizational goals related to external customers. This notion of the employee as a customer of the firm has resulted in a substantial stream of literature. Studies have examined the overlap of this notion with human resources management (George, 1990; Zerbe, Dobni, and Harel, 1998), its role in turning employees into patrons (Lusch, Boyt, and Schuler, 1996) and examinations of the factors that help or hinder the internal marketing (Johnson, 2008). One key area of study for this stream of literature is on customer contact service employees. They are an

extremely important internal customer group because, as noted by Wasmer and Bruner (1991), they hold a critical role in the service experience and must be sold on the service offering so that they are committed to the firm‟s goals. In their conceptual model, Wasmer and Bruner (1991) expound on the triangle model of services marketing developed by Gronroos (1984) and identify six key information flows that occur in services marketing between the customer, employee and firm. The key to this model is the central nature of the customer contact employee in the service experience. The first flow is from the firm to the consumer in the form of the firm‟s promotional activity, and serves as the foundation of consumer expectations for the service encounter. The second